I went to Jeremy Clarkson's pub in the Cotswolds and stayed for days

The grumpy motoring expert has turbocharged tourism to one of England’s greatest beauty spots, which is home to some of the UK's biggest names.

The car park at the Farmer’s Dog is full. Traffic is diverting to a nearby field where the local farmer is charging two quid for parking. 

He is doing very well. The field, just outside the town of Burford on the River Windrush in the Cotswolds hills, is filling quickly. It appears that providing parking is more lucrative than planting crops these days.

The Farmer’s Dog is celebrity motoring writer and TV personality Jeremy Clarkson’s latest Cotswolds venture following the momentous success of his TV show Clarkson’s Farm, and his Diddly Squat Farm Shop, which champions only locally produced goods. His ventures may be ruffling the feathers of a few locals who don’t like the excess traffic clogging the narrow country lanes, but they are certainly attracting tourists – and money – to the Cotswolds.

The line to get into the Farmer’s Dog is at least 30m from the door when we arrive 40 minutes before its noon opening. By the time the first guests gain entry, the queue has snaked its way down through the car park and there are about 300 people waiting patiently under a blue autumn sky. It takes an hour for us to get in. We are then served, and out the door 30 minutes later. This is a well-oiled machine. No mucking around.

Staff, who are much happier than the notoriously grumpy Clarkson, say they are feeding about 600 people each lunchtime in the pub. The menu, despite being small (you have a choice of four mains), is simple, delicious, traditional British pub cuisine. I chose the hearty pork sausages and mash with onions and Hawkstone gravy. My wife, Alison, had the steak pie with mash and Hawkstone gravy.

The line to get into the Farmer’s Dog is at least 30m from the door when we arrive 40 minutes before its noon opening.

The gravy uses Clarkson’s Hawkstone beer, which is sold in huge quantities at the barn-style shop in the grounds of the pub. The shop also sells local meat, Diddly Squat T-shirts, socks, sauces, and delightful fat-dripping bacon rolls that will set you back around $14. I estimate that there’s at least a thousand people in the pub, the shop and sitting in the field, enjoying the 16-degree sunshine. This is more theme park than pub, but it does work a treat.

The Cotswolds, in the heart of the country, is storybook England filled with picture-perfect villages famous for their church spires and honey-coloured stone buildings, historic castles, rolling hills and beautiful gardens. It stretches across five counties – Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, Wiltshire, and Worcestershire – and more than 2000sq km of land. It is Britain’s largest designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Clarkson is not the only celebrity name attached to the Cotswolds. The Beckhams (David and Posh) live here. Princess Beatrice and her cousin Zara Tindall have homes here, as do Simon Cowell, Elizabeth Hurley, Lily Allen, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant, and JK Rowling. Singer Taylor Swift rented a $7m home near Chipping Norton (famous for its antique shops) as her base for the European leg of her Eras Tour.

At the Farmer’s Dog, Alison had the steak pie with mash and Hawkstone gravy. Picture: @thefarmersdogpub

Unlike Taylor, we rented a $400-a-night tiny one-bedroom Airbnb cottage for four days in the tiny village of Broadwell, a few kilometres from one of the jewels in the Cotswolds’ crown, Stow-on-the-Wold. Broadwell does not have a shop, but it does have a stunning pub, the Fox Inn, where we enjoyed a few evening meals and lukewarm Cotswold brews.

In summer, the Cotswolds can be chaotic, with ancient towns – built for horse and cart – often overrun with tourists in fancy 4WDs and busloads of Americans in search of any kind of culture. We visited in mid-October and were lucky enough to get pleasant weather and on most occasions were able to find a parking spot.

Most visitors come to the Cotswolds with a list of towns that they need to tick off. Places like Bourton-on-the-Water, Chipping Norton, Chipping Campden, Stow-on-the-Wold, Painswick, Winchcombe, Bibury and Broadway.

Jeremy Clarkson’s ventures may be ruffling the feathers of a few locals, but they are certainly attracting tourists – and money – to the Cotswolds. Picture: Supplied.

All beautiful. All with their own quirks and personalities. You will find lots of independent stores, an oversupply of cake and ice-cream stores, and usually beautiful walks beside gentle flowing streams. Make sure you always have some duck food in your pocket. The birds really appreciate it.

I love food, so Stow-on-the-Wold – a true market town – was my pick of the bunch. It would take you a month to eat your way through the town’s plethora of dining options with everything from British-style curry houses to the cosy Porch House, England’s oldest inn. The Old Butchers, in the main street, is well worth a visit. An unpretentious bistro, it makes up for its quirky artwork and questionable taste in dinner music with some brilliant food.

We also ventured to Sudeley Castle & Gardens, home of Katherine Parr, King Henry VIII’s sixth and final wife. Parr’s life, and Sudeley Castle, both feature prominently in Jude Law’s film Firebrand. Near Winchcombe, Sudeley Castle fell into disrepair before being rescued in the 1830s. It now hosts festivals, weddings, Halloween events and you can even stay in one of the estate’s 17 cottages.

I love food, so Stow-on-the-Wold – a true market town – was my pick of the bunch. 

Both Alison and I agreed that four days just was not enough time to see all the Cotswolds has to offer. We could easily have stayed an extra two nights and found plenty of pretty villages, fabulous farmers’ markets, and vintage shops to keep us occupied.

How to get to the Cotswolds from Australia

Singapore Airlines flies daily to London from most captial cities.

Sudeley Castle hosts festivals, weddings, Halloween events and you can even stay in one of the estate’s 17 cottages.

Where to stay in the Cotswolds 

We booked a cottage through airbnb.com.au. There are also plenty of cosy pubs right in the heart of towns.

How to tour the Cotswolds 

You will need a car. During any day you will pop into four or five quaint cake-and-coffee towns. Hire a small one as the roads are often narrow. Stow-on-the-Wold is a one-hour and 50-minute drive from Heathrow Airport

Originally published as I went to Jeremy Clarkson's pub in the Cotswolds and stayed for days